I never felt like I was being hammered over the head with it...not the details or comparative analysis with other kinds of fiction.

Let me guess, that describes how you feel about the The Silver Lining?

Would you be surprised, that I find positives and negatives in both games, there are some things I think TSL gets right, other things AGDI gets right, some things both gets right, other things both get wrong?

Actually, I still think Infamous Adventures comes the closest to getting nearly everythign right, and the feel of the series as a whole...

Several of the developers of Infamous Adventures are also critical of the stuff in AGDI and TSL, for the very same reasons I am, and they vowed they don't want to go down that path with their games...

I have not played TSL (beyond the demo of the first chapter). I am not going to play TSL. I have heard about certain plot contrivances and over-dramatizations it creates for the characters, and I don't want to ruin my perceptions of the canon games (further) by coloring them with TSL's backstory.

As for IA's KQ3, the voiceover work is a bit subpar for certain characters, and I dislike clicking after each and every line of dialogue. (Yes, I've heard certain things may be fixed for the next version, but it has not been fixed yet so I maintain my position.)

The only thing I disliked about AGDI's KQ3Redux was that the animation for the green orb was both too lengthy and somewhat silly (in that "pinball" sort of way). They should have just had it float into the sky and radiate a light that fixed everything.

Also, someone should do a KQ4 remake. Someone other than Magic Mirror Games, since their project will likely not finish in the next decade.

I have heard about certain plot contrivances and over-dramatizations it creates for the characters,

Ya, I don't understand why many fan writers and developers do this in their fan games and fan fiction (AGDI and POS included). They tend to make things far more complicated than they need to be... Stretch suspension of disbelief and occam's razor... Create mary and gary stus...

Let me guess, that describes how you feel about the The Silver Lining?

Mmm, that's probably not exactly how I'd describe it. But just as with KQ2+, I could brush aside those parts of the story that seemed wrong to focus on the parts I'd enjoy. And in fact, once away from the royal palace, I had a great time with the adventuring/exploring/puzzle-solving parts of TSL. Except for an odd character and occasional weird narrator thing, it was mostly very KQ-like -- beautiful landscapes, magical goings-on, puzzles diffused in a cohesive mystery, no signposting that detracted from me shaping my own experience, the usual hand-eye-feet modes, cool inventory items, etc. I also liked the moderate use of arcade bits and timed puzzles at the end of the last episode, not exactly KQ-like but fitting and fun.

Nothing in these fan games did -- or could -- change my feelings about the originals. Which is why I don't really have a preference for 1:1 remakes. As long as the producers have a talent for gameplay design, I'm glad to get new locations and change-ups in the puzzles. If they fuck up the story, I'll pretend they didn't and write my own. :cool: (We are talking about games we didn't have to pay for, after all.)

One of the reason I don't like dabbling much in fan-fiction is that it invariably feels foreign or unnatural compared to the original material. Often I'll come away feeling that character y or plot-point x were done poorly, taken out of context, or missing altogether in a way that seems really obvious to someone looking at it from the outside.

Unfortunately, I've also seen this happen to official works when the original creator leaves because then you start getting other peoples ideas that don't always mesh or, as has been said, relies too much on existing modern concepts and ideas. However, the same could also be true if the creator comes back after one or more successful sequels, and claims nothing that happened matched his vision despite feeling seamless and natural. Ala Ron Gilbert and Guybrush marrying Elaine.

I'm really hesitant to go anywhere near some of the fan-sequels or even a few of the fan remakes simply because of all the extra additions or re-imaginings that either come out of nowhere (ancestor/descendant) or rely on very brief, almost throw-away, information that had little to do with the overall plot such as the Black Cloak Society.

That said, I was always kind of curious about the BCS in regards to the previous games, particularly in 5 and 6, and was a bit disappointed they never went anywhere with it.

Also, the BCS wasn't in KQ5, only KQ6. And it was specifically called "Society of the Black Cloak". In KQ5 Crispin and Mordack were members of the "Society of Wizards", which is moreso a group with good intentions, as alluded to by Crispin saying that Mordack had been "put on suspension" more than a few times.

My memory is probably playing tricks on me, but I could've sworn that there was mention of both Mannanon (or however it's spelled) and Mordack having been working together in KQ5. Something about them being brothers or friends or something.

However, I may also be pulling information from my memories of the Companion's story section, which was really interested and in ways helped me enjoy the experience of playing the games even more. I often would read the stories as I played the games during later replays, and always after I'd finish a game I'd read the book's version of events. I may be thinking of the mention but it was only in the Companion. Or maybe as you say, I'm getting my memories of 5 and 6 a little mixed up.

Roberta just forgot that detail (after she left the company)... Even though she collaborated on them nearly a decade and a half before on many of those ideas (with Peter Spear and others)... Like she forgot about the Society of the Black Cloak, and never got back to using it... She has admitted that she very rarely looked back at older material, and mainly focused on her present ideas... That's why we have several examples where she forgot about some of the stuff she worked on in the past, and only cared about her present work.

Right now she's apparently more focused on research for a book she is writing on Irish family history (IIRC), than looking back at anything in her Sierra years.

Also since Roberta no longer owns the series, she has little control over what goes on it, what ever Activison decides to do with the series now becomes the 'canon'...

However, to be fair Sierra never really used terms like 'canon', neither did Roberta... The used terms like "authorized", "official", or endorsments such as good place to learn more about universe in "greater depth and detail".

Canon is more of a fan speculation if anything... Hell there are people who try to force and claim that fan games are 'canon'....